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... After formally cutting off International Atomic Energy Agency inspections last week, Iranian nuclear-safety regulators have stopped taking calls from the United Nations watchdog, according to two officials who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive information. The IAEA's Incident and Emergency Centre was activated June 13 and had been in continuous contact with counterparts in Iran, but that information sharing has tailed off, they said.

The communication blackout underscores the degree to which Iran is using silence as a way to obscure international understanding over the status of its nuclear program. Tehran had previously allowed an average of more than one IAEA inspection a day and took part in five rounds of talks with the U.S. about a deal to curb its atomic activities, but the Israeli assault has changed the equation.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said Iran's nuclear facilities have been "obliterated" by 12 days of airstrikes, which -- if true -- would render the conversation moot. Yet the view of the IAEA is that, while sites at Natanz and Fordow have suffered some damage, uranium-enrichment activity could resume in a "matter of months," Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told CBS News over the weekend.

The whereabouts of Iran's 409-kilogram (902 pound) inventory of near-bomb-grade uranium is also unknown. Given the fuel can be stored in 16 cylinders each the size of a large scuba-diving tank, there's at least a possibility it's been transported to an undeclared location.

With no near-term resumption of IAEA monitoring in prospect, policymakers on both sides of the conflict are reacquainting themselves with so-called strategic ambiguity -- a key element to nuclear brinkmanship during the Cold War. By introducing a level of uncertainty about their intentions, goes the theory developed by Nobel Laureate Thomas Schelling among others, adversaries may be able to prevent a slide into total war. ...